Royal Pair Get Many Gifts but None to Electrify Them

--Sarah Ferguson is the first future royal princess of the 20th Century who has not received one electrical appliance, not even a toaster, for a wedding gift, Burke’s Peerage Publications in London says. But Ferguson and Prince Andrew, who will wed July 23, are not hurting for gifts. They already have received more than $350,000 worth of gifts, Burke’s said, including six giant sofas and 12 large armchairs, 308 vases, 16 Persian carpets, 18 breakfast-serving sets, 600 dinner plates in eight different patterns, 38 silver and glass salt-and-pepper shakers and more than 1,000 crystal wine and water glasses. But Ferguson has not received one toaster, frying pan or electrical appliance. Harold Brooks Baker, managing director of Burke’s Peerage Publications, the aristocrats’ bible, said: “This is the wedding list of an 18th-Century prince who never intends to get up and an old-fashioned bride who never expects to cook.”

--I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream--except Tony Dowdeswell, whose face was half-frozen and dripping with vanilla after he failed to break his own world record for fastest ice cream eating. “I feel fine,” said Dowdeswell, a 21-year-old Londoner. “I know I can break it if I get the right bowls.” He said the large American plastic salad bowl filled with 3 pounds, 6 ounces of ice cream lacked the easy-scooping qualities of an English soup bowl. Dowdeswell was trying to shatter his record of 50.04 seconds in the Guinness World Records Exhibit Hall in the Empire State Building. “It does hurt eating the ice cream--I mean, it’s freezing cold. Your head goes numb, and sometimes you can’t see from it.” The event in New York had been billed as a showdown between Dowdeswell and his father, Peter, who holds Guinness records for downing eels, mashed potatoes, hard- and soft-boiled eggs, spaghetti and hamburgers. After about 25 seconds and half the ice cream, Tony lifted his face and announced he could not break the record. His father, trying to defend the family honor, said he “would have a go at it,” but failed.

--Fame also eluded Tony Faulk of Flint, Tex. All he got for snagging the biggest catfish ever caught in the state was a $100 fine. The 122-pound flathead catfish, which would have been a state record by eight pounds, was lying under a boat dock on Lake Tyler when Faulk grabbed it. “I wasn’t even going to file on it” as a record catch, he said. “All my friends wanted me to. It turned into a catastrophe.” Faulk said he was about to fillet the fish when game warden Jerry Chilton arrested him. Grabbling--or taking catfish by hand--is illegal in Texas. Faulk was taken to Justice of the Peace Bill Beaird’s court where he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor.